THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: In this day and age, maybe pitching is all M's need

Can your pitching staff win a pennant?

The Mariners seem intent on finding out, having declared their everyday lineup complete with some … ahem … obvious holes still remaining.

To add more and better bats, however, the M’s would have been forced either to spend more money — at a time of fiscal uncertainty in the TV streaming world.

Or.

Break up a young pitching staff that is the envy of most other clubs in major league baseball.

That just wasn’t going to happen.

In fact, neither of those options was even given serious consideration.

Guarding the cash, we’ve known all about that for a while.

There’s no use whining over ownership’s reluctance to spend much — if anything — beyond last season’s $140 million player payroll.

Therefore, this team had to be built on its pitching.

Period.

“It’s always been Plan A for us,” vice president Jerry Dipoto said of keeping that rotation together. 

“I didn’t know if it was going to be possible. 

“We did a lot of groundwork on what it might look like if we did trade one of those young starters. And we never liked the way it looked.”

SO, HOW that pitching staff looks now is the way Dipoto and his lieutenants see things when they talk about liking it.

The starters remain intact: Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo.

Top prospect Emerson Hancock figures to get some time, especially if the Mariners try a six-man rotation. 

Andrés Munoz, Matt Brash and newly acquired Gregory Santos form the back end of the bullpen, with other innings needed assigned to Tayler Saucedo, Gabe Speier and Trent Thornton, along with Carlos Vargas (in a trade with Arizona) and Austin Voth (waivers).

Seattle has had so much success creating outstanding relievers that another platoon of unknown candidates will be auditioning at spring training — and history suggests the M’s staff will wind up with at least two or three bullpen gems.

The deals that Dipoto says made the team better without touching the rotation have left some definite question marks, however.

The Mariners absolutely need Ty France to come back hitting after an offseason program, and Jorge Polanco at second base has to stay healthy and deliver his usual offense.

On either side of Julio Rodriguez in the outfield, there are puzzles.

Can Mitch Haniger stay out of urgent care clinics?

Who might platoon against lefties if Luke Raley gets the regular left-field job?

Can Mitch Garver deliver some sock as a DH, and might they try Dom Canzone and his live bat in a platoon with him?

Will the defensive dropoff at third base (or weak offense, for that matter) make a Josh Rojas-Luis Urias job share impossible over the long season?

If we’re putting together a pennant-seeking ballclub in this era, that lineup — along with standouts Cal Raleigh and J.P. Crawford — probably doesn’t make you feel all that comfortable.

Dipoto knows what we know (and more), so you have to assume that he either intends to makes another trade or sign a cheaper free agent.

Or.

There are Mariners minor leaguers that the staff believes are ready to break out in The Show — Ryan Bliss, Tyler Locklear, several others — and we’ll see them in Arizona.

WE MAY be stretching things here, but there’s a final possibility.

Jerry actually could be peering over the landscape and deciding that a terrific pitching staff perhaps could carry a bang-average roster to a title.

It’s happened before.

Readers who have followed the game a while (quite a while) may remember the Los Angeles Dodgers of the 1960s and ’70s.

Some of those teams simply scrapped to score a couple of runs, then let an overpowering pitching staff slam the door.

Sure, you can say that was a different era, but really, the mound is still the same distance and hitters are actually LESS selective swinging than they were a few decades ago.

In fact, hitting has gotten worse with passing years — except for the occasional monstrous home run — so why couldn’t an excellent pitching staff dominate the game now?

In 1965, the Dodgers won 97 games and hit just 78 home runs.

That’s not a typo.

They averaged 3.75 runs per game and allowed 3.21, winning close games with speed, contact, defense and situational hitting.

They used eight starters — five of whom complemented the big three (Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Claude Osteen) and NONE of the eight had an ERA above 3.43.

Two of those starters were mainly late-inning relievers (Ron Perranoski and Bob Miller), but both threw more than a hundred innings.

Their secret sauce was the same one Scott Servais preaches today.

In a full season, the entire pitching staff issued just 425 walks (2.6 per 9 innings), against 1,079 strikeouts.

Those Dodgers won the World Series, too, beating Minnesota in seven games.

So, yes.

We know a pitching staff can carry you to a championship.

I wonder if it could happen in Seattle.

Workouts start in Arizona on Thursday.

Let’s see.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”